A Call for Change at United: A Statement from Annie and Perry Klebahn

My last post was about how United Airlines lost Phoebe, my friend’s 10-year old daughter. All of us involved in this story – especially parents Annie and Perry, NBC’s Diane Dwyer (the only media person that interviewed Annie and Phoebe), and me – were stunned to see how viral it went. A Google search last night revealed it was reported in at least 160 outlets – including England, France, and Germany with the facts based only on the post written here, Annie and Perry’s complaint letter, and United’s tepid apology. This blog received over 200,000 hits in the last two days; 2000 is typical. Annie and Perry have resisted the intrusive onslaught of media people (most were polite, several incredibly rude) and elected to do a single interview with Diane Dwyer. It appeared locally in the San Francisco Bay Area as well is in a shorter (but I think still excellent) form this morning on The Today Show. Here is the link to The Today Show video and to Diane’s written story on the local NBC site.

I also want to reprint United's statement because it lacks even a hint of empathy or compassion. Note that it does not question any of the facts put forth by Annie and Perry and also note that no attempt was made to reach out to Annie and Perry until United was contacted by NBC reporter Diane Dwyer. As one executive I know explained -- he is in what they call Global Services, the top 1% of United customers -- even the statement is a symptom of how deep the denial is and how shallow the humanity is in the company:

“We reached out directly to the Klebahns to apologize and we are reviewing this matter. What the Klebahns describe is not the service we aim to deliver to our customers. We are redepositing the miles used to purchase the ticket back into Mr. Klebahn’s account in addition to refunding the unaccompanied minor charge. We certainly appreciate their business and would like the opportunity to provide them a better travel experience in the future.“

Charles Hobart/United Airlines Spokesman

Annie and Perry have written a statement below and as you can see, they aren’t going to be doing any additional media and their focus is on persuading United to change its policies and procedures for handling unaccompanied minors. They ask the media and anyone else out there to please respect their privacy from now onward.

As they request, I will also shift my efforts here and elsewhere to trying to understand how United reached the point where they are so broken, developing ideas about what can be done to save them from themselves, and to press United to break out of its current denial and start down the road to redemption.

Here is the statement from Annie and Perry, again, please respect their privacy.

On behalf of the Klebahn family we appreciate your interest in our story. We feel strongly that United's program for handling unaccompanied minors is deeply flawed and that they need to seriously overhaul this program and their entire approach to customer service.

Hundreds of thousands of families send their kids on United each year as unaccompanied minors. We sent our daughter away to summer camp, but many families are separated for a variety of reasons and sending their kids on planes alone is part of their required routine. United offers this service, and families like us trust and rely on them to provide safe, secure passage for children. The age of the children United takes into their care is 5-11 years old and not all of them carry cell phones, nor have the maturity to know what to do in an emergency. It's astounding how many flaws there are in United's program but at a bare minimum we think they need to change the following:

United does not disclose that their unaccompanied minor service is outsourced to a third party vendor--this needs to change so parents can make an informed choice about who they are entrusting their children to when they travel alone

If United is going to continue offering this service to families they need to offer a dedicated 24/7 phone line that is staffed with a live human being in the U.S. so that parents have an active and real resource to use during their travel experience

United should also be required to alert parents immediately of travel delays and alternative plans for the minors in their care

It is still startling to us that after our unbelievable experience it took six weeks, and a press story by NBC, to have United even consider responding to our concerns and complaints. Our only goal in all of this is to have United acknowledge that their program is flawed, and to consider an immediate overhaul before another child gets lost or hurt. Getting our $99 back with a veiled apology means nothing given what we've been through.

As an organization United is broken. They have the worst customer rating of all airlines, they have the highest number of official complaints on the US Department of Transportation's website, and the largest number of negative comments on the Internet, Facebook and Twitter. How can they not notice that they are doing it wrong?

At this point the important thing for us is that our daughter is safe. We can only hope that making our story public will in some way make an impact by adding another voice to the many out there asking United to change. If you would like to add your voice too, please join our petition to change United's Unaccompanied Minor Program by signing your name to the petition we started on Change.org.

We would like to thank Diane Dwyer at NBC and Dr. Robert Sutton for their help telling this story. There will be no further comments or interviews.

Comments

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Thank you for shedding light on this issue. After I read the original post I sat next to an unaccompanied 5-year-old on a long flight. In addition to feeding him, giving him my iPad, and letting him fall asleep on me, I stuck with him for the 1.5 hours after we landed until he was picked up. I hope I would have done the same if I hadn't read your blog, but I can't be sure. I had always assumed that the Unaccompanied Minors program was surefire.

Bob, your question about "what to do" is interesting and intrigueing. Because I find this story scaringly analagous to the turn around story in the early 90s at Continental Airlines under the fresh leadership of Gordon Bethune and Greg Brenneman (B&B). They had to deal with the indifference challenge at the time. When they arrived at Continental, Continental was in serious financial shape and run by accountants and lawyers, and it was run by the book. Story goes that every one-off issue relating to anything and everything had a policy written for how to handle it - and was placed in a book that was at every employees disposal. The book supposedly grew to 9 in. in thickness - it was termed by employees as the "Thou Shalt Not" book. In essence, the book was unmanageable and it was safer and easier for employees to say "No" than provide guidance or assistance. Customer service at Continental was the poorest for the industry at the time.

B&B knew they had a huge problem to face, so this is what they did They asked all their HQ employees to meet them out in the parking lot at a designated time, where a 55 gallon barrel stood. As employees arrived, B&B walked over to the barrel, threw the book in the barrel and then poured gasoline over the book. and with a single match the book went up in flames. They told the employees, "Continental Airlines is your company to make great. Go do it - Now."

The symbolism of this action was huge and within days, customer service started to improve and within in a couple of years - was the best in the industry. Continental profits and customer loyalty grew.

Bob I don't know, but it feels like the new United (a merged United and Continental) is at the exact same spot as the old Continental when you go back and look at the historical context. Can a similar script to turn it around also be made?

I read your original post and was really distressed by the events. A day or so later I picked up your book (without any clue there was a connection) and I think this calls for the recipe for an apology.

I applaud Annie and Perry for their courage to stand up for what is right, not just for their family but for all families.

Sometimes it is hard to do the right thing, but I find it is always worth it.

I think United is terminally stupid. You'd thin the < a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo">United Breaks Guitars incident, where their cold-shoulder response to their screw-ups hammered UAL's market valuation for $100+ million would have taught them a lesson.

Bob, thanks for raising the flag on this, and I'm one of the many very unhappy former United customers. I also think it's a very, very important case study. When I talk with United flight attendants and employees, their biggest gripes have to do with losses they have incurred. Through terrible pension management (see http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/31/business/yourmoney/31pension.html?pagewanted=all), bankruptsy, merger, the employees lost wages, and much worse I think, significant chunks of their pensions. I haven't done the analysis, but in speaking with these employees, they harp on these losses. As we know, according to the loss aversion research, people want to avoid losses twice as much as they are to make gains. Therefore, I see what happened United as a microcasm for what is going to be the trend in many areas. Like a city that is nearly bankrupt, under the weight of pension obligations that weren't properly funded, or countries, or many other companies with defined benefit pension plans, rather than defined contribution plans, no one takes ultimately responsibility and in the end, people end of extremely unhappy -- all of which rubs off on everyone around them. So, while I'm not an expert on any of this, I would be curious to learn more about just what happened to United, and what, if anything, can be done. Thanks again.

"We certainly appreciate their business and would like the opportunity to provide them a better travel experience in the future."

I can't imagine why United would think they would want to travel with them again. I'm reminded of the time a friend of mine found a cockroach in his can of salsa. When he called to complain, they offered him coupons for something like a free year's supply of the stuff. His response was ummmm.....no. With some expletives attached, I believe.

I do about anything I can to avoid flying United. I think their motto should be "We're Too Big to Care." Plus after the many times I've been on interminable hold with them, I've soured on Gershwin for life.

The only appropriate response to this mess would have been an abject apology.